During the first week of life, most newborns develop a visible yellow coloring of the skin—jaundice—due to an increase in a chemical called bilirubin. Moderate levels of bilirubin are benign, but very high levels—called severe hyperbilirubinemia—can cause a condition called kernicterus, which is a severe and life-long severe form of athetoid cerebral palsy with hearing dysfunction, dental-enamel dysplasia, and intellectual handicaps.
In order to reduce the likelihood of kernicterus, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all infants be evaluated for jaundice with systematic measurement of bilirubin, and treated according to specific algorithms. Measurement of bilirubin levels is most accurately done by chemical analysis of a blood specimen, but hand-held instruments have also been developed to estimate bilirubin levels by optical measurement of subcutaneous skin coloration. Because of prohibitively high cost, such instruments are only practical in a hospital setting, rather than in a doctor's office or for home application. There are no currently available technologies for estimating the bilirubin level at a price level consistent with use in a doctor's office or in the home. Accordingly, it is often necessary for infants to return to the hospital to have the bilirubin level checked.
The present invention described herein builds upon the functions of smartphones, tablets, computers, digital cameras connected to computers and other home devices to give parents and clinicians a noninvasive, rapid, and relatively easy to implement tool to monitor bilirubin through changes in the skin color of the infant. The invention further provides an affordable method of estimating bilirubin levels in the home or doctor's office that will simplify and vastly improve the outpatient management of hyperbilirubinemia in babies during the first week at home.